1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electric plug connector having two housing parts with complementary contact elements, wherein one housing part is a plug receptacle forming a plug channel and the other housing part is a plug being adapted in its outer contours to the plug channel, and having an actuation element which, upon actuation through a set of gear teeth with a predetermined gear ratio, moves: the plug into or out of the plug receptacle.
In order to connect and release plug connectors, strong forces must often be exerted, especially in the case of a multi-pin plug connector. That becomes a problem especially if a stationary housing part, that is the plug receptacle, is disposed at a poorly accessible location, as can be the case in motor vehicles, for instance. In order to assure a secure connection, it is important that the contact elements of the two plug connector parts be made to mesh completely with one another, or in other words that the plug be pressed all the way into the plug receptacle. In order to assure that and also to prevent unintentional undoing of the plug connection, insertion and pulling aids of various forms are used.
It is known to employ a gear ratio or mechanical advantage in plug connectors. For instance, German Utility Model DE-U 87 14 016 describes an electrical connector housing in which a lever is supported in the gap between the plug and the plug receptacle on the plug. A short lever arm of the lever comes to mesh with a rack of the plug receptacle through a tooth. In a plug connector known from German Published, Non-Prosecuted Application DE 28 12 901, two levers are supported on the plug receptacle and each comes to engage a rack of the plug through a pinion on the short lever arm. In both cases, the geometry of the lever arm fixes and also limits the gear ratio constantly over the entire insertion path. Such plug connectors are moreover not universally usable due to the space required for the pivoting motion of the lever.